2.1 A taxonomy of newsclips

The term ‘newsclip’ should be interpreted as news that has a cited source. In particular, we refer to articles published in business newspapers and magazines or in the financial pages of daily newspapers. Bredon (1999) identifies four main ways in which the news is used in teaching economics:

Osmotic newsclips. These are newsclips that have no commentary except possibly for course headings that may help students identify their relevance. They are used in the belief that familiarity will eventually translate into economic literacy.

Case study newsclips. These are published intact and are accompanied by questions and/or analysis. They are usually complex in their coverage.

Focused newsclips. These are short news excerpts used to illustrate a given economic principle or theory.

Reworked news. This is written in the author’s own words with specific acknowledgement of the news source.

The use of newspaper articles in your teaching will mainly require the use of focused and case study newsclips.